


like the spring, we are such fools

by defcontwo



Category: Hawkeye (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-19
Updated: 2014-01-19
Packaged: 2018-01-09 07:44:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1143354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/defcontwo/pseuds/defcontwo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sad puppy faces, trailer style ramen recipes and the indomitable Hawkeye genetic code. Or: Kate and Clint, on missing each other across the country.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like the spring, we are such fools

**Author's Note:**

  * For [unbidden_truth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/unbidden_truth/gifts).



Clint Barton is a human disaster. 

She loves him but she came all the way out here because she needs to be the hero in her own story, not spend her entire youth looking after him. It's not healthy, in the end, to pretend that she's the adult in their relationship and look after him because she's going to come out the other side and find that she's not an adult at all and she doesn't know who she is because she wasted all this time trying to force herself into something she's not, instead of letting herself grow into it. 

She does that a lot, she knows. Puts on her best dress and her best don't fuck with me face and tells the world to take her seriously and she likes that people view her that way, that they think of her as someone competent and in control. 

She is someone competent and in control, a lot of the time. 

But. Sometimes she isn't. Sometimes, she kind of just wants to let herself be a mess and figure it out. 

Maybe Clint was right. There really is something in the both of them that makes them -- if not the same, not exactly, built from the same foundation, maybe. Call it the Hawkeye genetic code. 

Futzing hell, she misses Clint. 

Lucky does too, she knows, from the way his ears perk up whenever they're watching TV and the Dog Cops theme comes on because Clint should be shouting through the door and striding in, beer in one hand and Chinese take-out in the other but every week passes, and Clint's not here, won't be here, and Lucky always gets that sad disappointed puppy dog look. 

He makes the same face when Kate refuses to feed him dinner every hour of every day but she's still pretty sure that the missing Clint thing is mostly genuine. 

Maybe. Whatever. She can do some research the next time she goes to the library. Google "what do dogs look like when they're actually sad and not just wanting food." 

That has to turn up something, right? 

So, here she is in this futzing small trailer, with a mopey dog and a spoiled cat and a black and white TV that goes out half the time and she's hungry and she's tired and what's in that cat food, anyways, lobster? Caviar? 

So, she texts Clint. So sue her. 

**To Clint:** Have you ever made hamburger ramen? 

He doesn't reply right away. She wasn't expecting him to, really. Clint has a tendency to throw his phone somewhere and forget about it for days on end. One time, she found it between couch cushions and that was only by accidentally sitting on it. 

But two weepy and slightly shameful hours of Maury later, her phone chimes and Kate dives for it. 

**From Clint:** Yup. You got cheese? 

Kate casts a quick glance into the tiny trailer fridge. 

**To Clint:** ….string cheese? 

She can picture him laughing at her. Hell, she's laughing at herself. Whatever, they were on sale. String cheese in bulk. Thank you, Costco. 

**From Clint:** That'll do. Cook the meat and the ramen separately then add it all together with the cheese. It won't be so bad.

A beat and then: 

**From Clint:** You okay, Katie-Kate? 

Kate warms, a little, a smile stealing across her face. 

**To Clint:** Yeah. You? 

He takes about ten minutes to reply and that worries her a little more than it should but then: 

**From Clint:** Yeah. Getting there, anyway. 

A few seconds later, her phone chimes again. 

**From Clint:** The dog miss me? 

Kate swipes her phone open, sure fingers finding the camera option. She takes about ten different pictures of Lucky's glum, hang-dog expression from different angles. The best one comes from hanging backwards off the bed, blood rushing to her face, but it's a great picture, Lucky with his face on his paws, ears tucked downwards and she's straining her neck, a little, Clint really better appreciate this. 

It's perfect. She hits send. 

Something in her loosens and settles. She knows right down to her bones, for the first time since she took off, that she and Clint are going to be okay. Whatever else happens and however long it takes her to -- to find herself, for Clint to sort himself out, they're going to be okay. 

Hawkeye genetic code: 1, long distance falling outs: 0.


End file.
